First Impressions of Tokyo
18 March 2008
It’s been a week now since we arrived in Japan and we’ve since really been overwhelmed by the flood of new impressions. I don’t even know where to start.
Our apartment is about half the size than our flat back in Munich, but very nicely refurbished and in a great building, in which we are obviously the “poor kids on the block” (i.e. about the only ones who do not own a limousine with personal driver). Although we are in the middle of this frantic city we live in kind of a little oasis – there is actually a small garden and hence a fair amount of space in between our building and the neighbouring skyscrapers, and from our (extremely comfortable) bed we have views on Tokyo tower. Also worth mentioning is our fantastic shower, which (together with the bath) occupies about two thirds of the surface of the bathroom (I love it!!). This also means that the rest of the bathroom is squeezed onto a tiny little bit of space, but fine.
Coming to Terms with Our Kitchen
My first really big shock was the kitchen. At first sight I was seriously worried about not being able to enjoy cooking in there. Although everything is very new (as the rest of the apartment), there are only two (small) hot plates, which clearly is an extremely limiting factor for anyone who loves cooking. We both did not quite understand the concept – as a matter of fact there IS enough space for a proper cooker.
By now we have figured that we are actually extremely lucky with the kitchen we have. Talking to other people we found out that most of them have far smaller kitchens, no oven, and some even have so little (or no) space on the counter that they need to slice vegetables on the floor. Seems like our kitchen, with a reasonably sized counter (even though made of plastic, which seems to be standard here but for us Europeans looks somewhat basic), a normal oven and a fairly large fridge and freezer, is a real luxury edition in Tokyo terms.
Apparently people here really just dine out a lot. Although I am really looking forward to checking out the immense choice of restaurants here, I definitely want to cook, and the two hot plates (and the general lack of most kitchen tools) are clearly not helping. So we made our way to several furniture and electrical appliances stores, watching out for some electrical portable cookers (gas is forbidden in our building). We did not quite find what we expected – but we were stunned by the choice of induction heaters on offer, and they were even affordable. How great to be in such a high tech country! I bought 2 of them and later found out that they even came with a kind of clay pot on top. In addition, among others, we got a rice cooker (trying it out will be a bit of a challenge – plenty of buttons in Japanese only) and a (very low-tech) large pot with an inlay for steaming (that one has already proven useful for both vegetables and Chinese dumplings). Now all of this has populated our kitchen, waiting to be used.
Food Paradise
Our first tours through the local supermarkets and food halls were really amazing. I am so looking forward to trying out all those (to me) exotic vegetables, soy based products, and, above all, the fantastic fish. Even in the little supermarket around the corner you get some huge chunks of sashimi-quality tuna to die for – not to mention the choice of fish and seafood in the department store food halls. The thought that all these products will from now on be the regular ingredients of my meals, hence completely changing my so-far cooking style, is somehow really exciting! I look forward to exploring many different ways of using them.
I have to head off to my first Japanese lesson now. But as from now you can count on regular posts on my website again, with lots of (culinary) news from Tokyo and - of course - recipes!